Report from Louisiana: My Students Learned to Love to Read

Report from Louisiana: My Students Learned to Love to Read

By: Pat Austin

The end of our first semes­ter is upon us and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my class­room read­ing project that I began this year and to pro­vide an update since so many of you donated money or sent books to my classroom.

Over the sum­mer I read Don­a­lyn Miller’s The Book Whis­perer which then led me to other experts on the sub­ject of inde­pen­dent read­ing in the class­room such as Penny Kit­tle and Kelly Gal­lagher. I read lots of stud­ies and did a lot of research before decid­ing to ded­i­cate fif­teen min­utes of every class period to inde­pen­dent read­ing; that is a whole lot of class time and I wanted to be cer­tain that this would be a good investment.

It was.

Part of my con­cern that ini­ti­ated this project was that our new cur­ricu­lum, Guide­books 2.0, strips plea­sure read­ing and short sto­ries almost entirely from my syl­labus. It is a scripted cur­ricu­lum and we are not allowed to take away from it, but we ARE allowed to sup­ple­ment it, spar­ingly. I decided that the most impor­tant thing to me, for my stu­dents, was to ensure that they did not lose their love of read­ing due to the pre­scribed, often dry, arti­cles, speeches, and court opin­ions that they are required to read, espe­cially in the tenth grade syl­labus. We have two units: The Immor­tal Life of Hen­ri­etta Lacks (9 weeks), and Mac­beth (9 weeks). Both of those are won­der­ful sto­ries (although we never read the Hen­ri­etta book, only arti­cles about the story of Hen­ri­etta and the ethics involved); the prob­lem is that the Guide­books strip pretty much any­thing imag­i­na­tive or engag­ing from the students.

I hoped my read­ing project would help keep them engaged and inter­ested in reading.

In my class­room this year, from August to Decem­ber, my stu­dents read just over 345 books, give or take a few. As they com­plete a book, each stu­dent logs the title and date into his Read­ing Note­book; the sense of accom­plish­ment in look­ing over this list at the end of the semes­ter can be great for most students.

Some stu­dents read a lot more books than other stu­dents, but that doesn’t take away the accom­plish­ment of those slower read­ers. I have one stu­dent who has never fin­ished a book in his life but read all of Bob Batchelor’s biog­ra­phy of Stan Lee. I ordered that book specif­i­cally for this stu­dent and I watched as that book­mark sank deeper and deeper into the book each day. He read the entire thing; that was a huge accom­plish­ment for this par­tic­u­lar student.

At the other end of the spec­trum, I had avid read­ers who rel­ished the oppor­tu­nity to engage in their favorite hobby and they read dozens of books.

Every Fri­day my stu­dents wrote a let­ter to me in their note­book reflect­ing on what they read dur­ing the week and dis­cussing their cur­rent book. These let­ters opened a dia­logue between us and strength­ened our rela­tion­ships. Read­ing became a com­mon bond for us. We talked about books and we talked about the real life lessons that they taught us.

One of the most pop­u­lar books this semes­ter was The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. I bought four copies of that book, and our school library kept another copy going. The kids wanted to read it, they wanted to talk about it, and they wanted to read other books like it. When one of my girls fin­ished it and wanted a sim­i­lar book I handed her Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. In this book a boy is con­sid­er­ing shoot­ing the per­son he believes killed his brother. As he descends in the apart­ment build­ing ele­va­tor, he has “encoun­ters” with fam­ily and friends who are no longer alive and he has an oppor­tu­nity to reflect on his planned action. My stu­dent was engrossed in this book and when she got to the end­ing, her jaw dropped and she looked up at me, wide-​eyed, break­ing the silence in the room with, “Mrs. Becker!”

I love that a book can elicit this kind of a reac­tion from a kid!

I have a male stu­dent who was a reluc­tant reader and he’s been work­ing on Hatchet all semes­ter. Near­ing the end of the book now, he just shook his head and mut­tered, “This lil boy has been through too much…”.

On Fri­day, as I was grad­ing final read­ing reflec­tion let­ters, so many of my stu­dents expressed grat­i­tude for our read­ing pro­gram; one girl wrote, “One thing I learned this week is that I remem­ber how much I love read­ing and I’m proud that I read mul­ti­ple books this semes­ter.” Another wrote “I love that we get to read in here,” and yet another stu­dent who was not a par­tic­u­larly avid reader in August, expressed pride that she read three entire books this semester.

Through read­ing these let­ters each week it was really grat­i­fy­ing to see so many of my stu­dents enjoy read­ing and dis­cussing their books with me. I’ll be hon­est though, not every stu­dent fell in love with read­ing. I had a cou­ple of boys who never got off what­ever ran­dom page the book landed on. I had another boy who just grabbed a soc­cer book with brief biogra­phies of soc­cer stars and he would prop it open on his desk to hide his phone behind it. We had mul­ti­ple dis­cus­sions about this behav­ior but I also know that I can’t force a kid to read and I refused to penal­ize them with grades on this. I feel strongly that read­ing should be its own reward.

In the end I’d say with about 85% strong par­tic­i­pa­tion, 10% mod­er­ate par­tic­i­pa­tion, and 5% utter apa­thy, this was a real suc­cess for my stu­dents. I will def­i­nitely con­tinue this pro­gram next semes­ter which begins in Jan­u­ary and will tweak it by talk­ing more about the books I’m read­ing; I’ll also invite more open dis­cus­sion about books my stu­dents are read­ing in addi­tion to the one on one dis­cus­sions we had this semester.

Since a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of the books in our class­room library arrived through dona­tions from our Ama­zon Wish List, and some of those dona­tions came through read­ers of this blog, I wanted to update and share our progress with you.

Read­ing opens so many doors for stu­dents on so many dif­fer­ent lev­els; I feel truly hon­ored to be able to guide my stu­dents into the world of books.

The end of our first semester is upon us and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my classroom reading project that I began this year and to provide an update since so many of you donated money or sent books to my classroom.

Over the summer I read Donalyn Miller’s The Book Whisperer which then led me to other experts on the subject of independent reading in the classroom such as Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher. I read lots of studies and did a lot of research before deciding to dedicate fifteen minutes of every class period to independent reading; that is a whole lot of class time and I wanted to be certain that this would be a good investment.

It was.

Part of my concern that initiated this project was that our new curriculum, Guidebooks 2.0, strips pleasure reading and short stories almost entirely from my syllabus. It is a scripted curriculum and we are not allowed to take away from it, but we ARE allowed to supplement it, sparingly. I decided that the most important thing to me, for my students, was to ensure that they did not lose their love of reading due to the prescribed, often dry, articles, speeches, and court opinions that they are required to read, especially in the tenth grade syllabus. We have two units: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (9 weeks), and Macbeth (9 weeks). Both of those are wonderful stories (although we never read the Henrietta book, only articles about the story of Henrietta and the ethics involved); the problem is that the Guidebooks strip pretty much anything imaginative or engaging from the students.

I hoped my reading project would help keep them engaged and interested in reading.

In my classroom this year, from August to December, my students read just over 345 books, give or take a few. As they complete a book, each student logs the title and date into his Reading Notebook; the sense of accomplishment in looking over this list at the end of the semester can be great for most students.

Some students read a lot more books than other students, but that doesn’t take away the accomplishment of those slower readers. I have one student who has never finished a book in his life but read all of Bob Batchelor’s biography of Stan Lee. I ordered that book specifically for this student and I watched as that bookmark sank deeper and deeper into the book each day. He read the entire thing; that was a huge accomplishment for this particular student.

At the other end of the spectrum, I had avid readers who relished the opportunity to engage in their favorite hobby and they read dozens of books.

Every Friday my students wrote a letter to me in their notebook reflecting on what they read during the week and discussing their current book. These letters opened a dialogue between us and strengthened our relationships. Reading became a common bond for us. We talked about books and we talked about the real life lessons that they taught us.

One of the most popular books this semester was The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. I bought four copies of that book, and our school library kept another copy going. The kids wanted to read it, they wanted to talk about it, and they wanted to read other books like it. When one of my girls finished it and wanted a similar book I handed her Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. In this book a boy is considering shooting the person he believes killed his brother. As he descends in the apartment building elevator, he has “encounters” with family and friends who are no longer alive and he has an opportunity to reflect on his planned action. My student was engrossed in this book and when she got to the ending, her jaw dropped and she looked up at me, wide-eyed, breaking the silence in the room with, “Mrs. Becker!”

I love that a book can elicit this kind of a reaction from a kid!

I have a male student who was a reluctant reader and he’s been working on Hatchet all semester. Nearing the end of the book now, he just shook his head and muttered, “This lil boy has been through too much…”.

On Friday, as I was grading final reading reflection letters, so many of my students expressed gratitude for our reading program; one girl wrote, “One thing I learned this week is that I remember how much I love reading and I’m proud that I read multiple books this semester.” Another wrote “I love that we get to read in here,” and yet another student who was not a particularly avid reader in August, expressed pride that she read three entire books this semester.

Through reading these letters each week it was really gratifying to see so many of my students enjoy reading and discussing their books with me. I’ll be honest though, not every student fell in love with reading. I had a couple of boys who never got off whatever random page the book landed on. I had another boy who just grabbed a soccer book with brief biographies of soccer stars and he would prop it open on his desk to hide his phone behind it. We had multiple discussions about this behavior but I also know that I can’t force a kid to read and I refused to penalize them with grades on this. I feel strongly that reading should be its own reward.

In the end I’d say with about 85% strong participation, 10% moderate participation, and 5% utter apathy, this was a real success for my students. I will definitely continue this program next semester which begins in January and will tweak it by talking more about the books I’m reading; I’ll also invite more open discussion about books my students are reading in addition to the one on one discussions we had this semester.

Since a significant number of the books in our classroom library arrived through donations from our Amazon Wish List, and some of those donations came through readers of this blog, I wanted to update and share our progress with you.

Reading opens so many doors for students on so many different levels; I feel truly honored to be able to guide my students into the world of books.

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